By Khushwant Singh
A LORRY ran a police roadblock and then hit speeds of 140kmh and
beat a red light trying to outrun a police car in hot pursuit in
the early hours of July 6 2010.
Bagavath Singh Jayakkumar, 31, was eventually cornered in the
high-speed 3km chase. At the police station, the Indian national
refused to breathe properly into a breathalyser.
On Thursday, a district court jailed him a month for dangerous
driving and fined him $2,500 for failing to provide a specimen of
his breath for the breathalyser test.
The court heard that police conducting checks along Jurong Town
Hall Road at 1.20am had signalled a lorry to stop at a roadblock.
Jayakkumar simply drove through.
An officer then gave chase in a police car, blaring its siren
and signalling the lorry to pull over. Instead, the lorry raced off
at twice the road's speed limit of 70kmh.
Jayakkumar was forced to halt at the junction of Boon Lay Way
and Jurong East Street 31 as there was no way through the vehicles
that were waiting at the red lights. The lorry driver smelt
strongly of alcohol and failed the breathalyser test conducted by
an officer.